Quantifying emotionally grounded discursive knowledge with cognitive-affective maps

Abstract Belief systems matter for all kinds of human social interaction. People have individual cognitions and feelings concerning processes in their environment, which is why they may evaluate them differently. can be visualized with cognitive-affective maps (CAMs; as reported by Thagard (in: McGregor (ed) EMPATHICA: A computer support system visual representations mapping, AAAI Press, CA, 2010)). However, it unclear whether CAMs constructed an intersubjective way different researchers attempting to map the beliefs a third party based on qualitative text data. To scrutinize this question, we combined strategies quantitative methods network analysis case study examining belief networks about participation. Our data set consists 10 sets two empirical CAMs: first CAM was created participants’ freely associating concepts related participation education (N = 10), second one given participants represented following standardized instruction manual 10). Both CAM-types were compared along three dimensions similarity (network similarity, concept association affective similarity). On there substantially higher agreement text-based than free CAMs, supporting viability cognitive mapping research method studying emotional coherence discursive knowledge. In addition, highlights potential identifying group-level differences how associate concepts.